Week 4 - Repairing a Broken Marriage

Great Adventure: Introduction

Introduction

Great Adventure: Introduction

Introduction

We live in a culture that is obsessed with Romance.

Almost everywhere you look, from cinema to television, songs, musicals, cartoons, cleaning product advertisements-we are always talking about romantic love. Something about the prospect of love has captured our society.

It’s not an accident that romantic love is such a powerful idea. God wired us to love and be loved. Marriage has been the culmination of romantic love within the Christian framework of relationships since the time that Jesus walked the earth. Scripture talks a great deal about marriage and how it is a part of God’s plan for people.

Are you viewing marriage through the lens of scripture or through the lens of culture? While marriage can be a healthy part of our spiritual life, when marriage is unhealthy, it can also be one of the most damaging and hurtful parts of our lives.

We want to be a community of people who treat marriage the way God has called us to. We have called this series “The Great Adventure” because that is what God has designed marriage to be. I hope you will join us on the trip!

Read on for the in-depth, biblical background, or press the button for week 1 to skip ahead to the main content of this study.

How can we trust what the Bible says about Marriage? Doesn’t it degrade women? Isn’t it so old and out of touch? How can the biblical passages on marriage possibly be relevant to my life?

All of these are good questions-when we read the marriage/household code passages of scripture, it’s extremely helpful when we have a basic grasp on what the author of scripture is drawing from and what the historical context is around what we are reading-below is a brief treatment of these passages that you will find helpful as we move through this series

What do we do with Marriage/Household Code passages in the New Testament? Household Codes in the NT:

In this passage the heart of Peter’s Christology provides the foundational principle for living rightly in society’s most common and mundane structure, the household. The juxtaposition of these two seemingly disparate topics is better understood when the importance of household relationships within Greco-Roman society is appreciated. For centuries the Greek moral philosophers wrote about proper relationships within the household, slaves to masters, wives to husbands, and children to parents. Instructions with important points of contact with the NT, “household codes” can be found in Plato’s Republic (384– 370 BC), Xenophon’s Oeconomicus (ca. 430– 355 BC), Aristotle’s Oeconomica (384– 322 BC), Plutarch’s Advice to Bride and Groom (AD ca. 46– 120), Seneca’s Moral Epistles (ca. 4 BC?– AD 65), and Dio Chrysostom’s On Household Management (AD 40– ca. 112). (For a comparison of these Greek writers to 1 Peter, see Balch 1981.) Although these writers had different views on slaves and women, all shared a common belief that order in the household, which they believed to be divinely ordained, was the constituent basis for a strong, orderly, and prosperous society. Modern scholarship has held differing views of the origin and purpose of the NT household codes (Balch, ABD 3: 318– 20; Fitzgerald, ABD 3: 80– 81). Household codes do not appear in the OT or in Jewish writings until Judaism engages the Greek worldview (e.g., Philo and Josephus). The copious writings concerning household management and their prominent place in the Greco-Roman culture suggest that no religion or philosophy entering that moral world could ignore addressing the same topic. Peter and Paul, whose theology and ethics are deeply rooted in the tradition of the OT, nevertheless include household codes in their letters to audiences whose worldview probably would have been influenced by the Greek moral writings. Even though both apostles address the topic of order in the household, neither simply affirms Greco-Roman expectations. The function of the household codes in the NT ethical instruction is also debated (Balch, ABD 3: 318– 20; Fitzgerald, ABD 3: 80– 81). Some argue that they represent a legalistic response to social unrest in the church caused by egalitarian movements among women and slaves (Crouch 1972). J. H. Elliott (2000) argues that the household code functions to bring to the church a cohesive identity that would be consistent with its missionary goals. Balch (1981) contends that the codes function apologetically in response to social criticism of the effect of Christianity on the household and therefore on the social order. These various views are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Moreover, Peter and Paul may not have had precisely the same reason in mind for including the household code in their writings. Both apostles do teach that new life in Christ is to be lived out within existing social structures. However, the function of the code in Col. 3: 18– 4: 1 seems directed to correcting false teaching. Peter’s use of the code functions apologetically in its immediate context (cf. 1 Pet. 2: 12; 3: 15). While addressing the topic of household management and using a form similar to the Greek moral writers, Peter puts household relationships on an entirely new footing that subverts the moral code as previously taught by the Greek philosophers.